National Constituent Assembly Research Articles

The debate on Brazil’s language at the National Constituent Assembly of 1946

Neste estudo, analisamos os debates acerca da nomeação da língua da nação brasileira, no contexto da Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1946. Ainda que formulados por líderes políticos distintos em suas trajetórias, mentalidades e estratégias, os discursos sobre a língua apresentaram pontos comuns, desdobrando-se na promoção da nacionalização do português brasileiro e, ao mesmo tempo, na legitimação do português europeu como língua de civilização. Avaliamos que, no contexto de redemocratização da política brasileira e renovação nacionalista, a conservação da herança cultural e linguística portuguesa tornou-se desejável, quer para a sustentação do ideal monolíngue, quer para a desvalorização das variedades ditas populares, de negros e mestiços, relegadas à condição de "meia-língua do poviléu”, “patoá do jeca”, “idioma corrompido” etc.. Ao recuperar essa discussão, esperamos expor algumas ideias sociopolíticas construídas a partir de princípios de diferenciações sociais e linguísticas, as quais contribuíram para a manutenção das ideologias e práticas racistas no Brasil.

SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND NATIONAL ACTIVISM OF CAPTURED UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS IN THE WETZLAR CAMP, GERMANY, 1917: CONTENT AND FORMS (Based on the Materials of the “Public Opinion” Magazine)

The purpose of the article is to analyze various manifestations of social, political and national activism of captured Ukrainian soldiers in the Wetzlar camp during 1917, when the Ukrainian camp community exerted a decisive influence on all aspects of the lives of camp residents and most effectively fulfilled its main mission – the formation of a developed national worldview among Ukrainian prisoners. The research methodology involved the use of problem-chronological, concrete-historical, and comparative-retrospective research methods, the combination of which made it possible to reveal the investigated problem. The scientific novelty consists in highlighting various aspects of the activism of captured Ukrainians based on the use of materials from the camp press. The prisoners of the Wetzlar camp in 1917 had the opportunity to show their activism in many spheres of camp life, in particular, by participating in meetings and elections to the representative bodies of the Ukrainian community in the Wetzlar camp, joining the ranks of politically engaged societies (“Volya”, “Independent Ukraine”, “Sich”), or helping the development of Ukrainian schooling in the Volyn lands through their donations. This, in turn, influenced the change in the worldview of the prisoners, who stopped using cultural and autonomist slogans for Ukraine, instead they declared their devotion to ideals of independence. This was especially evident in the initiative to hand O. Skoropis-Yoltukhovsky an additional “mandate” with the desire to entrust the decision of the fate of Ukraine not to the Russian, but to the national (Ukrainian) constituent assembly. Regular reading of the materials of the camp magazine “Public Opinion” (“Hromadska dumka”) was also one of the ways of forming an active pro-Ukrainian civic position – thanks to the publication's focus on the events of social and political life in Ukraine and Russia. At the same time, the newspaper tried to cover all significant news from the scope of life activities of the Ukrainian community in Wetzlar, which created a sense of belonging to the camp space among the campers. Due to the fact that the newspaper regularly published messages about national, political, and charitable actions planned in the camp, as well as informed about the content and consequences of the work of the elected bodies of the camp community, the captive Ukrainians felt that they were an integral part of Ukrainian society, capable of building their own national life even in difficult conditions of captivity.

Transatlantic Legal Networks

Abstract This article investigates the construction of the authority of jurist Boris Mirkine- Guetzévitch in the Brazilian political and legal fields between 1927 and 1934. Through the reading of the archives of the Rockefeller Foundation, it shows how Mirkine-Guetzévitch, inspired by the desire to preserve democracy and human rights, established key transnational centers for the diffusion of legal knowledge—the International Institute of Public Law (1927) and the Parisian Institute of Comparative Law (1931)—where his ideas were well received. It then argues, through the reading of the contemporary Brazilian press, that these organizations were instrumental in sustaining—or were actively employed to sustain—his contacts with Brazilian personalities starting from 1932. By analyzing the 1933–1934 Annals of the Brazilian National Constituent Assembly, this article concludes that this effort was successful, and that Mirkine-Guetzévitch became a key reference for Brazilian liberal politicians during the debates leading to the promulgation of the 1934 Constitution.

Liberty, Equality, Slavery

Abstract: During the winter of 1789–90, contemporaries in Paris observed intense controversy over the future of the lucrative colonial slave trade. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, in proclaiming all men free and equal, raised questions about the legality of slaving. Both the abolitionist Society of the Friends of the Blacks and proslavery commercial lobbyists representing France’s chambers of commerce, influenced by developments in Britain and the United States, sought to force the slave trade onto the legislative agenda. Countering a consensus that the French revolutionaries never confronted the problem of the slave trade, this essay looks beyond the floor of the National Constituent Assembly to reveal the high-stakes debates that played out largely shielded from public view: in correspondence, in legislative committees, in the Jacobin Club, and in private meetings. This contest served as a proving ground for France’s new representative government and an engine for political innovation, engaging a broad cast of nonelected political actors in the process of lawmaking. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, revolutionaries voted overwhelmingly to reconcile liberty, equality, and slavery, establishing precedents for future regimes.

The Indigenous Movement, during the National Constituent Assembly

This article aims to identify the importance of the Indigenous Movement in Brazil, during the re-democratization of Brazil and during the process that originated the 1988 Constitution. It is the end of the indigenous assimilationism, from the formal point of view. Social movements linked to liberation theology influenced the political articulation necessary to defend the indigenous cause.

The Different Waves of Citizen Participation in the Constituent Process of 1991

This reflection article describes the different waves of citizen participation that occurred in the constituent process of 1991. It begins with the student movement of 1989, continues with the great national debate that took place in the working groups and the preparatory commissions, and ends with the National Constituent Assembly, the most pluralistic and multicultural in national history. It concludes that the Political Constitution of 1991 emerged from an unprecedented constituent process, which changed the way of making constitutions in Colombia.

Making the “Citizen Constitution”: Popular Participation in the Brazilian Transition to Democracy, 1985–1988

AbstractThis article examines popular participation in the making of Brazil's 1988 post-authoritarian “Citizen Constitution.” In 1987, Brazilians submitted 122 popular amendments (emendas populares) supported by over 12 million signatures to the National Constituent Assembly (1987–88). As this article contends, this extraordinary experiment in popular constitution-making problematizes notions of Brazil's transition from authoritarian to democratic rule as the most conservative of those that swept Latin America at the end of the Cold War. The popular amendments emerged amid a nationwide campaign for popular participation that saw millions of Brazilians participate in letter-writing campaigns, protests, and debates over the constitution that carried over into the halls of the Constituent Assembly itself. I argue that the popular amendments countered the arbitrary authoritarianism of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964–85) with a constitutionalism in which everyday Brazilians would safeguard democracy through popular participation in government. While only partially consolidated, this vision offered diverse marginalized groups an opportunity to claim full citizenship in Brazil's nascent democracy, especially in ways that more overtly addressed issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability. This article thus shows that far from being the exclusive province of political elites, everyday people meaningfully shaped the constitutional restorations in late twentieth-century Latin America.

The Mobilization of the Brasil: Nunca Mais Report in the Suggestions Sent by the Population to the National Constituent Assembly

Resumo Este artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre as recepções e apropriações do relatório Brasil: Nunca Mais a partir das sugestões apresentadas por seus leitores à Assembleia Nacional Constituinte. O objetivo é explicitar a importância do relatório na formulação e na transmissão de uma perspectiva sobre o passado que confrontava a política de esquecimento imposta pela ditadura civil-militar. Utiliza-se o fundo documental do Projeto Diga Gente, que deu origem ao Sistema de Apoio Informático à Constituinte (SAIC), disponível no sítio do Senado Federal. Argumenta-se que essas pessoas, ao mobilizarem sua leitura do Brasil: Nunca Mais, evidenciam certas representações sobre o passado ditatorial articuladas a determinadas expectativas de futuro e apresentam motivações específicas para a transmissão da experiência do terrorismo de Estado em uma conjuntura de transformações institucionais e políticas. Dessa forma, é possível compreender, parcialmente, a difusão, a circulação, a recepção e os usos do Brasil: Nunca mais e sua importância na conformação de uma memória da ditadura durante a transição política.

Florestan Fernandes e a educação pública na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte (1987-1988)

Abstract This text aims to discuss de struggles in the educational area in the National Constituent Assembly and its historical origins, following the theoretical and political ideas of sociologist and constituent deputy Florestan Fernandes. The challenge of breaking the democracy’s Gordian knot in its articulation with the public education agenda constitute the reading key used to follow Fernandes’ manifestations in the Constituent Assembly. The sources used were his articles in newspapers and his speeches in the Constituent Assembly, which are organized in collections and are available in the digital files of the Congress. In parallel with the four stages of the Constituent Assembly, we read Florestan Fernandes’ texts and discourses in a chronological path that followed its main moments. Thus, the analyzed material was organized into three core themes deeply related to the hopes and impasses of the constituent process: (i) Historical challenges of the Constituent Assembly; (ii) The constituent process, popular participation, and education; and (iii) The transacted transition and the limits of the “New Republic.” This last stage already shows the limits that the Constituent Process faced, which, again in Brazilian history, prevented the rupture of the Gordian knot of democratic reforms.

The Labour Situation in Colombia and Human Rights

The Labour Situation in Colombia and Human Rights Omar Romero Díaz (bio) Colombia, a country where for more than two hundred years it has been added to absolute poverty, since independence, a historical process that ended the colonial stage by the Spanish Empire, since the appearance of unions in Colombia that the Colombian State broad sectors of the political, economic and business class have been unable to recognise the role of the trade union movement in the defence of labour rights and union freedoms and its leading role in the different scenarios of a democratic state. This is what explains the wave of systematic violence since its appearance at the beginning of the last century, referenced in the “Masacre de las Bananeras” (English: “Massacre of the Banana Workers”) in 1928, with the murder in the central park of Ciénaga, of more than 3000 workers of the American United Fruit Company by the machine guns of the national army, for demanding better wages and job guarantees. Similar behaviour has occurred at various times of confrontation with trade unionism as some cases worth mentioning: on 23 February 1963, 11 workers and an 11-year-old girl died in the Municipality of Santa Bárbara, Antioquia, when there was a strike by the workers of Cementos el Cairo, the military attacked the camp of the strikers; in 1969, in the National Patriotic Strike against the administrative reform of Lleras Restrepo; the same in 1977 in the realisation of the National Civic Strike recorded as one of the largest mobilisations in national history; the strikes of the USO Workers’ Union in defence of Ecopetrol; of the Telecom Workers, led by SITELECOM, to prevent its sale; the innumerable teacher strikes under the direction of FECODE in defence of public education and the rights of teachers; the public sector strike in 1998; and many more battles of Colombian workers, many of them recorded in national history; such as the recent National Strikes of 21 November 2019, and 28 April 2021, which led to a social rebellion, which others call a social explosion. This violence against the trade union and social movements, of expressions of protest and popular uprisings is consigned, indisputably, in the first place, by the struggle in defence of life, land, workers’ rights, food sovereignty, peace with social justice, health, and defence of the environment and natural resources and, secondly, for the submission of the country’s rulers to the United States and its strategies of confrontation in the cold war with the former Soviet Union. Violence and anti-communism In the Treaty of Versailles, the triumphant imperialist powers to counteract the triumph of the Russian revolution and its influence in the labour sectors founded the ILO in 1919 and recognised workers’ rights through fundamental agreements, several of them ratified in 1933 in Colombia. In the vision of combating communism, we will mention that the violence of the late 1940s was engineered and directed by the United States against democratic movements. It is worth remembering that, in December 1952, through Legislative Act 01 of 9 December, the Congress of the Republic convened a National Constituent Assembly of fascist orientation and by legislative act 06 of 14 September 1954, decreed: “The activity politics of international communism. The law will regulate the way to make this prohibition effective”. Likewise, the partisan violence that worsened around 1948, with the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, a dissident political leader of the Liberal Party who sponsored the debate on the Banana Massacre, is based on Truman’s crusade since March 1947 against international communism and all forms of popular mobilisation to maintain US domination and contain the Soviet Union, which intensifies with the triumph of the Cuban revolution. The struggles from the workers were stigmatised in this anti-communist strategy by the Washington doctrine. In the context of the peace processes of Belisario Betancur, successful with some insurgent forces and unsuccessful with the FARC, there is the appearance of the Patriotic Union and the exacerbation of the most conservative sectors of the national scene with the creation of paramilitary armies, which sharpens the violence against the democratic and leftist sectors from the mid-1980s onwards. This...

Lobbying for Labor Rights in Brazil’s National Constituent Assembly

Lobbying for Labor Rights in Brazil’s National Constituent Assembly

Sistema de Controle Interno do Poder Executivo Federal: Mudanças e Agentes Políticos na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1987

A Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1987 marcou o começo da redemocratização no Brasil. As disputas por um projeto de país tomaram diferentes formas e temas. E o mesmo não foi diferente com o sistema de controle interno. A trajetória deste fenômeno data o início do século XX e adentra o século XXI. Muito popular na literatura da Administração Pública, muitos estudos foram publicados sobre o controle interno, mas majoritariamente com uma perspectiva da gestão pública ou da contabilidade. Este artigo analisa quais foram as mudanças institucionais no sistema de controle interno do Poder Executivo Federal Brasileiro entre a Constituição de 1967 e 1988. À luz da teoria de mudanças institucionais este artigo pretende contribuir com a literatura das Ciências Sociais e da Ciência Política sobre os tipos de mudanças ocorridas, os tipos de agentes políticos envolvidos em tais mudanças, bem como interpretar a influência do contexto político na época sobre os resultados promulgados com a Constituição Federal Brasileira de 1988.

From Mistrust to Understanding: Inclusive Constitution-Making Design and Agreement in Tunisia

In 2014, Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly (NCA) almost unanimously approved the country’s first democratic constitution despite significant identity-based divisions. Drawing on the Tunisian case, the article explores the role of an inclusive constitution-making process in fostering constitutional agreement during democratization. Emerging studies that link different process modalities to democracy have so far brought only limited illumination to how inclusive processes matter, nor were these propositions systematically tested. Using process tracing, and building on original interviews gathered in Tunisia between 2014 and 2020, this article traces a causal mechanism whereby an inclusive constitution-making process allowed for a transformation of interpersonal relationships between political rivals. It demonstrates that more than two years of regular interactions allowed NCA deputies to shatter some of the prejudices that initially separated especially Islamist and non-Islamist partisans and develop cross-partisan ties, thus facilitating constitutional negotiations. However, I argue that the way these transformations contributed to constitutional settlement is more subtle than existing theories envisaged, and suggest alternative explanations. The article contributes to the debate about constitution-making processes by unpacking the understudied concept of partisan inclusion and applying it empirically to trace its effects on constitutional agreement, bringing precision and nuance to current assumptions about its benefits.

Florestan Fernandes

O presente texto avalia a atuação de Florestan Fernandes entre os anos de 1987 a 1994, na condição de Deputado Federal, quando reafirma sua defesa da educação pública, além de denunciar o racismo persistente em nossas relações sociais. Trata, portanto, da intervenção política de Florestan Fernandes em favor da educação pública e contra o racismo estrutural. Para tanto, este texto analisa os seus discursos na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte, registrados no Diário da Assembleia em 1997, além de avaliar sua proposta de Emenda Constitucional, apresentada em 1994, que recomenda reparação racial por meio da inserção do negro na educação pública e estatal.

Os Quilombos e a Superação da Colonialidade Moderna

Este artigo expõe o envolvimento da Faculdade Mineira de Direito (PUC Minas) na luta do movimento negro e quilombola para a efetivação dos direitos conquistados na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1987/1988 e que foram positivados na Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988 (CR/88). Os direitos antidiscriminatórios, os direitos culturais dos povos de matriz africana e os direitos étnicos e territoriais das comunidades quilombolas representam a tentativa de superação do racismo estrutural da sociedade moderna/colonial, que nega as liberdades básicas e o acesso aos recursos e oportunidades sociais aos povos de matriz indígena e de matriz africana. A construção de uma sociedade livre, justa e solidária, que ainda é uma mera promessa constitucional prevista no artigo 3º, inciso I, da CR/88, e cuja efetividade se mostra ainda distante da realidade excludente e marginalizadora da sociedade brasileira, pressupõe a superação do racismo estrutural da sociedade moderna/colonial, especialmente na dimensão da negação de direitos e recursos/oportunidades às raças construídas socialmente como inferiores ao longo do processo de surgimento e expansão do capitalismo. Os inúmeros projetos de extensão, que foram propostos e executados pela Faculdade Mineira de Direito, ou que contaram com a sua participação, mostram o compromisso da universidade na construção de um conhecimento jurídico emancipador e decolonial, que, a partir do diálogo com o movimento negro e quilombola, busca superar o racismo estrutural da sociedade brasileira e construir uma realidade na qual as subjetividades não europeias possam encontrar condições de ter uma vida digna e decente.

A redemocratização investigada por meio de cartilhas do movimento Pró-participação Popular na Constituinte: Educação Política e Cultura

Trata da ditadura militar de 1964, período que representa uma das facetas da cultura política autoritária da sociedade brasileira. Até a saída dos militares do governo central em 1985 se deu a partir de diversas frentes de embates, acomodações e cessões entre a elite parlamentar de oposição, a sociedade civil e o governo ditatorial. Aponta textos normativos, atores políticos e práticas do regime de 1964 persistiram no cenário político. Descreve a história político-institucional brasileira e como foi recorrente que os textos constitucionais fossem expressões da disputa político-institucional entre elites oligárquicas locais e projetos normativos centralizadores. Atenta-se especialmente no período entre 1985 e 1988, nas atuações coletivas de movimentos sociais, como o Movimento pró-Participação Popular na Constituinte (MPPC), que mobilizaram milhões de pessoas e fizeram centenas de eventos e coletaram milhões de assinaturas em emendas populares com propostas para a Assembleia Nacional Constituinte (ANC). Conclui apresentando resultados parciais de pesquisa descrevendo como essa mobilização foi possível e quais instrumentos foram mobilizados.

OMBUDSMAN OU OUVIDOR: DEFENSOR DOS DIREITOS DA POPULAÇÃO NA FISCALIZAÇÃO DA ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA

The research aims to analyze the Ombudsman institute as an advocate for the rights of the population to supervise the Public Administration and as a guardian of legality against impropriety and abuses of power in the exercise of administrative activity. With the Federal Constitution of 1988, Brazil resumed the traditional way of Democracy and Rule of Law. However, despite the democratic climate established, the National Constituent Assembly rejected the proposal that would establish the figure of the Ombudsman in the country. The method used is the hypothetical-deductive, based on legislation, doctrine and jurisprudence. It is concluded that the Ombudsman, as an external body of the Public Administration, although not expressly provided in the Major Law, has the mission of impartial inspection of Public Administration in defense of fundamental rights, all in light of the Federal Constitution and the principles and norms that govern the Brazilian Democratic State of Law

Popular demands related to sports in the National Constituent Assembly of Brazil

The objective was to analyze the popular suggestions related to sports and sports democratization made to the last Brazilian National Constituent Assembly, registered in the Computer Support System to the Constituent, electronic platform created to subsidize the construction of the Constitution of 1988. These suggestions represented the only form of true direct democracy in the constituent process. This is a descriptive article, with data collected in the year 2017. The sum of 415 (32%) from a total of 1,289 popular suggestions related to the theme sport were analyzed. In general, the majority of the suggestions requested more state support for sports, while many suggestions were not appropriate for a national constitution, and approximately 24% of the suggestions more objectively called for sports democratization. Although these suggestions could inform constituents about popular demands regarding sports, there was prioritization of the demands raised by entities representing the organized sports sector.

Revolución, violencia y Derecho: Hans Kelsen y el surgimiento de la Constitución Federal Brasileña de 1934

Este artículo pretende discutir las relaciones entre derecho, violencia y revolución en Kelsen a partir de la premisa de que el indicio característico de la experiencia jurídica es su efectividad, o sea, el hecho de que el derecho logre imponerse en una sociedad. En este sentido, el derecho pasa a ser entendido como experiencia de monopolización de la violencia. Sobre esta base se realiza una lectura de la Teoría Pura del Derecho de Hans Kelsen como una teoría de la violencia. Para confirmar esta tesis, francamente minoritaria dentro de los estudios kelsenianos, se analiza el Dictamen que Kelsen ofreció a la Asamblea Constituyente brasileña en 1933, en el contexto de la Revolución de 1930 que llevó a Getúlio Vargas al poder. Además de presentar este documento (en el original alemán y traducido al castellano), hasta hoy desconocido en castellano y otras lenguas, el trabajo lo analiza pormenorizadamente con el objetivo de demostrar la tesis central de lo que caracteriza la teoría jurídica kelseniana, según la cual es imposible separar el derecho de la violencia, lo que se vuelve especialmente claro en momentos revolucionarios.

Rupturas e continuidades no pensamento de Arthur Neiva acerca da imigração japonesa no Brasil entre 1920 e 1937

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar as rupturas e continuidades no discurso ora favorável, ora desfavorável do médico sanitarista, intelectual e político Arthur Neiva acerca da imigração japonesa para o Brasil entre 1920 e 1937. Ao longo do texto, abordaremos à s três fases do discurso de Neiva: um primeiro momento anti-japonês entre 1910 e 1920; um segundo momento no qual ele mesmo se autoproclamou pró-japonês após retornar de uma viagem científica ao Japão em janeiro de 1921. E, devido à s questões políticas que tangenciam o próprio espírito do Nacionalismo da década de 30, buscaremos apresentar, uma terceira fase no qual ele assume um papel conservador juntamente com outros líderes de vertente anti-japonês na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1934. Assim, por meio do estudo de telegramas e jornais da época no Brasil e Japão, buscaremos compreender não apenas as “mudanças de lado” de Arthur Neiva, mas também, ao término, expor o próprio cerne do pensamento crítico sobre os imigrantes na Constituinte de 1934.